Beep. Beep. Beep. Bzzzt.
"Phew."
Lee Ji-hoon punched in the door code and stepped inside.
The walk home from Hongdae. His feet felt noticeably lighter than usual.
Ever since he'd been given this second life, he'd been in good spirits — but today felt a little different.
"You haven't eaten, right?"
"Yeah, you told me not to eat dinner."
"I brought chicken."
"Chicken? Oh my gosh."
Ji-hoon set two whole chickens on the dining table — he'd picked them up on the way home.
"Why'd you buy two? One would've been plenty. Where do you think money comes from?"
"I work, don't I?"
"It's just a part-time job. How much could you possibly be making? And you haven't even gotten your paycheck yet, have you?"
"I got tips."
"Good grief."
Even if her son was earning money, she'd rather he just enjoy his high school years.
Kim Mi-jeong, Ji-hoon's mother, felt the same way — so she was a little flustered — but deep down, the fact that her son had earned tips, that he was being recognized at work, tugged the corners of her mouth upward.
There's no way not to love watching your child throw themselves into something.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
"Ji-hyeon, come out!"
"Why!"
She still had the sacred duty of teenage rebellion, being in her second year of middle school — but Lee Ji-hyeon, who generally listened to her mom, came out anyway.
"Sniff sniff — wait, is that chicken?"
"Your brother brought it."
"Really? No way."
"……"
Ji-hoon watched his little sister light up and smiled.
She's at the age where she goes crazy for stuff like chicken and pizza.
"Oh wow, the Ppureokle is so good."
"I think it's a little too salty."
"The cheese flavor's all for Ji-hyeon."
"Yes!"
Ji-hyeon, now a perfectly well-behaved little sister thanks to the chicken, grinned as she said it. She was small, but the way she ate with such gusto made her look wonderfully lively.
Munch munch.
"……"
Ji-hoon finally bit into a drumstick.
His sister was aggressively working through the Ppureokle — the cheese-flavored chicken — so he'd grabbed a piece from the other box, which was half seasoned, half original.
"Good."
Of course it was good. It was chicken deep-fried in oil.
In his past life, Ji-hoon had loved chicken the way any Korean does.
But right now, it tasted like something he'd never quite tasted before.
"……"
"Ji-hoon, what's wrong all of a sudden?"
"Nothing."
Ji-hoon smiled — a smile he couldn't quite explain — and shook his head.
This chicken brand was huge in 2015. It had even expanded into major Japanese cities.
Ji-hoon had eaten there a few times, not because he particularly liked it, but because among the Korean chicken places in Shin-Okubo, it was the one he had the fewest objections to.
The Shin-Okubo, Kabukicho days — a time when young Japanese women obsessed with Korean culture were everywhere.
Ji-hoon had often taken designated-request customers out for chicken when they wanted Korean food.
'It was pretty expensive.'
Ji-hoon wasn't usually one to think about prices, but Korean food was different. He couldn't help comparing it to what the same thing cost back home.
The last price he remembered for chicken in Japan was around 3,000 yen for a whole original — roughly 30,000 won. If they'd charged that in Korea, the country might have split in two.
Different times, sure — but the receipt from tonight, two chickens from that same brand, read 33,000 won.
"Ugh, it's getting in my hair."
"Hm?"
"……"
Ji-hoon watched his mom dab at the cheese powder that had gotten into his sister's hair with a tissue.
'I'm happy.'
The cola instead of the beer he always used to drink with chicken. The fact that he wasn't performing warmth for someone else's benefit — that he was genuinely present with the people in front of him. His mom and his sister, laughing and eating chicken. He liked all of it.
Why had he never known that spending time like this — buying chicken with money he'd earned himself, eating it together with his mom and sister — could feel this good?
"Ji-hyeon gets both drumsticks."
"Yes!"
Ji-hoon handed them over.
"Ji-hyeon's going to shoot up eating like this. Didn't Ji-hoon have a big growth spurt around second year of middle school?"
"Maybe?"
"Ji-hyeon will definitely grow a lot over winter break."
"Hahaha."
At this point in time, Lee Ji-hyeon was on the shorter side for her age.
"I just hope I don't end up as tall as Oppa — 170 centimeters would be perfect."
"If our Ji-hyeon gets that tall, she'll have to be a model."
"A model's a bit much."
Mother and daughter were happily spinning their wishful thinking.
'Sorry, Mom. Sorry, Ji-hyeon.'
Ji-hoon, who knew how things would turn out, quietly kept his mouth shut.
That was never going to happen.
If anything, they'd end up grateful she came close to the average height for Korean women.
"Hmm."
Still — his sister eating well. His mom looking happy.
'I want more.'
The contentment of everyday life like this was good, but something was stirring inside Ji-hoon — a desire to earn more money, and to earn it faster.
***
"So the answer is number one! It was a bit of a tricky question."
Chorok High School, first year, class two.
English teacher Choo Min-jeong said it with a slightly apologetic lilt.
It had been a somewhat convoluted fill-in-the-blank question. She could only hope the students, still adjusting to high school English, wouldn't let something like this shake their confidence.
"Da-hyeon, you've been working really hard lately."
"Oh — yes."
Choo Min-jeong smiled brightly at Kang Da-hyeon, who had been focused throughout the lesson, and Da-hyeon responded with a faintly embarrassed air.
She couldn't even remember the last time she'd been praised for something like this.
"Ahem."
Study time. Students working through problems.
Choo Min-jeong let out a small, satisfied hum as she looked out over the class.
It felt like more and more students were actually paying attention these days.
"I thought about it this way, so I went with number three."
"Oh?"
Sure enough, the moment class ended, Lee Ji-hoon came up to ask a question. Choo Min-jeong smiled and began walking him through it, one step at a time.
"Ah, I see."
"Do you get it now?"
"Yes, thank you."
"Great!"
Choo Min-jeong looked up at Ji-hoon and smiled. He was model student material — polite, attentive — and honestly, she'd never say this out loud, but he was attractive in a way that was hard to ignore.
She was the type who got flustered by the tall, thoughtful, quietly handsome type of male character in dramas, and Ji-hoon, a first-year in high school, somehow gave off exactly that energy. She had no idea why this kid radiated the air of a full-grown adult.
"Anything else you want to ask?"
"I'm fine, thank you."
Not that Choo Min-jeong was the type to go weak in the knees over someone this much younger — she kept things perfectly natural.
'That was close.'
Ji-hoon walked back to his seat after asking his question.
During their exchange, he'd had to quietly endure a minor inconvenience while keeping his expression neutral.
The height difference meant that the slightest downward glance gave him a clear view of his teacher's neckline. Not that managing his gaze was any challenge for a former host.
"Hm?"
"……"
Smirk.
Ji-hoon turned and gave a small smile to Kang Da-hyeon, who had been waiting behind him to ask her own question.
She looked away without much reaction.
'Wait — are we not that close yet?'
Da-hyeon's flat response left Ji-hoon mildly embarrassed. Still, seeing her change like this — actually trying in class — was good to see. He didn't mind.
"What did you want to ask, Da-hyeon?"
Choo Min-jeong, whose mood had been lifted by Ji-hoon, turned a bright smile on the girl she'd recently taken a liking to.
"Oh… well, it's…"
"Yes?"
Da-hyeon fidgeted, running a hand through her hair.
'Ah, I see.'
Choo Min-jeong figured that for this girl, simply asking a question must feel embarrassing in itself.
She looked proud, didn't she? At least at first glance.
"There's nothing shameful about asking. What's shameful is staying quiet when you don't understand."
"Sorry?"
Choo Min-jeong, having completely misread the situation, was so moved by her own line that she gave a little self-satisfied shrug — and entirely missed Da-hyeon tilting her head in confusion.
"Hey, what are you doing."
"Nothing much."
Break time. Classroom 1-2.
Lee Sol-ji, a girl from class 1-7, had come by and was talking to Ahn Jun-min, a boy in class 2.
She had the look you'd find at practically any girls' school or co-ed high school: thick black hair cut in a blunt bob, a short skirt, heavy makeup.
"……"
'Hm?'
Ahn Jun-min didn't miss the way Sol-ji glanced at Kang Da-hyeon's back — Da-hyeon was sitting just ahead of them.
A look of mild displeasure. He thought they ran in the same crowd — had they had a falling out? It seemed like it.
Jun-min had a lot of friends, and he was quick to read a room.
"Want to go to karaoke together sometime?"
"If I'm free."
"Hey, but—"
"What?"
"Hehe."
Now she was looking at Lee Ji-hoon. He was sitting there reading a book, same as Jun-min — but the way she looked at the two of them was noticeably different.
"Let's ask Ji-hoon to come too."
"Ji-hoon?"
"Yeah, you two are close, right?"
"Close is…"
Jun-min let the sentence trail off. Honestly, they weren't that close — but saying so out loud felt unnecessarily rude.
'Lee Ji-hoon.'
Jun-min glanced at Ji-hoon's back.
Before, he'd just been — tall, but kind of withdrawn. The type who'd have fun once you actually got him to do something, but never the one to suggest it himself.
The kind of guy Jun-min, who liked getting along with everyone, would occasionally rope into a basketball game or something — and Ji-hoon would just go along with it.
But he'd changed, suddenly and completely.
His appearance was part of it, but what really stood out was the studying.
'Before, I think he was…'
Around the same level as Jun-min, if he remembered right. Similar attitude toward class too. But then out of nowhere he'd flipped a switch, and now he was working harder than the top student in the year.
"You ask him."
"What?"
"You can just ask him yourself whether he wants to come."
Jun-min offered what he considered a reasonable compromise.
He wasn't exactly putting in the effort himself these days. He didn't particularly hate that about himself. But he knew, as a Korean high schooler, that studying hard was important — that it was the right thing to do.
Which was why asking a classmate who was clearly grinding to come hang out felt genuinely difficult.
But then again, telling Sol-ji to leave Ji-hoon alone because he was a serious student would just be sticking his nose where it didn't belong.
It was pretty obvious Sol-ji was interested in Ji-hoon. What happened next was Ji-hoon's call.
"Come on, that's kind of funny?"
"What do you mean."
"Fine, I'll ask him. But Jun-min, you're something else."
"……"
That particular brand of pointed remark girls had.
Jun-min had seen it enough times to be immune. Honestly, it wasn't like they were even that close — they just happened to share some mutual friends.
"Hmph."
Before the break ended, Sol-ji walked over to Ji-hoon.
"Hey, Ji-hoon."
"Yeah?"
Ji-hoon, who'd been reviewing the lesson, turned around.
"I'm Lee Sol-ji — want to hang out after school? With Jun-min and Sang-yong and them."
"……"
'Who was she again?'
The fact that he couldn't quite place her face meant she was probably from another class. They must have passed each other in the halls once or twice, but she hadn't left much of an impression.
Ji-hoon glanced over at Ahn Jun-min. He had the look of someone trying not to get involved.
'Oh, right.'
And then it clicked — the girl with the heavy makeup. He had a vague memory of her talking to Kang Da-hyeon a few times.
"You're Da-hyeon's friend, right?"
"Huh? Oh — yeah."
Sol-ji looked briefly startled, then nodded.
"Though I don't think Da-hyeon would come along…"
"Oh, that doesn't really matter."
Ji-hoon watched her trail off and said:
"I'm busy, so I can't. You guys go without me."
"What?"
"Sorry for turning you down when you went out of your way to ask."
He said it in the tone of an uncle gently letting down a niece.
"Class is about to start."
"……"
It wasn't that he found her unpleasant — but surely she needed time to get back to her own classroom. Sol-ji, however, took it as a dismissal.
"See you around."
"Sure!"
Ji-hoon turned back to his book.
'Going out is fine, but…'
He had no intention of spending the hours after school on fun.
***
"Hmm."
[Deposit: 392,000 won.]
Ji-hoon confirmed his part-time pay had come in.
Unusually, this place paid out on the next weekday after eight shifts.
Weekend part-timers usually worked eight to ten days a month, so it wasn't strange exactly, but still—
"Not enough."
By 2015 standards, it was more than enough for a first-year high schooler to live comfortably and have a good time.
But for Ji-hoon, who needed to be moving forward right now, it felt short.
"……"
"No, no."
He couldn't just throw himself into any work for the sake of money.
For now, the plan was to keep doing weekend shifts without letting it interfere with studying, and to start preparing for the NeTube channel.
Tsk.
Ji-hoon clicked his tongue.
Still — he wanted to get something going faster.
He'd been studying hard. He'd been exercising enough that his body was in noticeably better shape.
He was making a point of keeping his head clear.
At this rate, he'd build a steady, respectable life — but the impatience was something he couldn't quite shake.
"Hm?"
Just then, something caught his eye while he was browsing NeTube-related content.
[Kang Hyeon's Street Karaoke — Coming to Hongdae!]
"……"
Total prize money: two million won.
Obviously it wouldn't all go to one person, and there'd be plenty of competitors — but it was enough to catch Ji-hoon's attention.
'The thing is…'
He didn't want his face shown.
***
"That's all for today!"
"Aww."
"Pouting won't help. Take a bow!"
"I'm Min Da-young!"
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
Hongdae busking street, Seoul.
Kang Hyeon, a broadcaster on America TV, was running his street karaoke segment.
The setup: a karaoke machine plays the track, the contestant sings along.
And on top of that, viewers voted in real time.
"Next up!"
"Here!"
Ji-hoon stepped to the center.
"Please introduce yourself."
"I'm seventeen, first year of high school — sorry about the disguise, but if my mom finds out I'm doing part-time work, I'll get kicked out of the house."
"Hahahahaha."
Ji-hoon was wearing an MLB cap and sunglasses.
— ?????
— wait why is he covering his face
— lol
— lmao
— lmao
— lol
— lol
The chat was immediately taken over by mischievous viewers.
"Come on, guys, give him a break. He's a first-year in high school. I checked his student ID — he's legit. And he's actually really good-looking. Wow, tall too."
Kang Hyeon put a hand on Ji-hoon's shoulder as he said it.
Kang Hyeon — a streamer in his early thirties, known for being handsome.
At this point in time, he was one of the few broadcasters simulcasting on both America TV and NeTube.
Ji-hoon had already met with the production staff before going on. His identity was known to them. As long as it didn't get out to the general public, that was fine.
"So — what song are you doing?"
"I'll be doing 'Your Every Moment.'"
"Ooh, that's a tough one. You sure about this?"
"I'll do my best."
"Alright, let's go."
The karaoke machine began to play.
The Hongdae weekend crowd was what it always was — packed.
"Oh—"
Ji-hoon started to sing.
Around him, as if on cue, people began raising their hands to their mouths.